Dear Intuit: Bite me.

[IronWing]

We noticed you haven't upgraded to the latest version of Quicken so we thought that we might offer you some encouragement to do so by crippling the version you already paid for. So be sure to send us some more money to get back what you already paid for and have great day!

 

[darkewaffle]

Welcome to the sunset policy.

 

[lxskllr]

How'd they do that? If I had any inclination to buy a company's product, that would remove every bit of it. Try GnuCash. People say it isn't as good, but a pencil and calculator is better than getting abused by software you paid money for.

 

[waggy]

what version did they disable? how could they do that?

 

[CurseTheSky]

How'd they do that? If I had any inclination to buy a company's product, that would remove every bit of it. Try GnuCash. People say it isn't as good, but a pencil and calculator is better than getting abused by software you paid money for.

A lot of the time, people are so set in their ways with a piece of software that they can't imagine switching. Especially for business-critical applications (bookkeeping counts too), they know a good portion of their customers are locked in.

The same goes for stuff like Windows, Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and others. There are alternatives out there, but learning a new interface and dealing with missing features can be a deal breaker, so they get away with charging what they do.

 

[Miramonti]

You can always use it to download from your financial institutions directly thru their website.

Quicken wants people to think the software will die if you don't upgrade, but 1/2 my automatic downloads don't work and I have to go directly to the sites anyways.

It's not likely I'll ever upgrade to another quicken version again.

 

[darkewaffle]

what version did they disable? how could they do that?

At any given point in time Intuit only 'supports' the current version and the previous two versions of Quicken and Quickbooks. Anything prior to that is subject to having certain online features disabled.

 

[waggy]

At any given point in time Intuit only 'supports' the current version and the previous two versions of Quicken and Quickbooks. Anything prior to that is subject to having certain online features disabled.

that blows.

i used 2003 for years. it would pop up to upgrade but no way was i paying $60 for a new version. Then they offered me 2009 for $10 and i did get that.

I'm still using 2009! lol

gotta admit if if they turn it off i will just pirate the damn version. fuck them for killing something i legally paid for.

 

[IronWing]

A lot of the time, people are so set in their ways with a piece of software that they can't imagine switching. Especially for business-critical applications (bookkeeping counts too), they know a good portion of their customers are locked in.

The same goes for stuff like Windows, Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and others. There are alternatives out there, but learning a new interface and dealing with missing features can be a deal breaker, so they get away with charging what they do.

This is true. I only switched to Quicken when Money died. Money was better.

Anyway, Quicken will no longer import .qif files for bank accounts. It stopped automatically importing .qif files years ago but would allow the user to download them and then use the import feature to open the file and import the data manually. Now it won't even do that. As it used to work and now it doesn't, this had to be a timebomb built into Quicken 2010. Intuit wants banks to license their newer formats and users to upgrade so they slowly destroy the functionality of older versions. Bite me Intuit, just bite me.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Although Quicken is more powerful, Mint is so much more pretty and up-to-date.

Quicken I have but never use. Mostly because I have yet to pay for it >_>

 

[waggy]

This is true. I only switched to Quicken when Money died. Money was better.

Anyway, Quicken will no longer import .qif files for bank accounts. It stopped automatically importing .qif files years ago but would allow the user to download them and then use the import feature to open the file and import the data manually. Now it won't even do that. As it used to work and now it doesn't, this had to be a timebomb built into Quicken 2010. Intuit wants banks to license their newer formats and users to upgrade so they slowly destroy the functionality of older versions. Bite me Intuit, just bite me.

yeah my version of 2009 won't do it anymore.

i never really cared since i check it every day or other day anyway.

 

[IronWing]

yeah my version of 2009 won't do it anymore.

i never really cared since i check it every day or other day anyway.

Paypal doesn't support Quicken's newer file format so .qif was the only alternative to manual entry.

Reading the terrible reviews of Quicken 2013 on Amazon certainly puts me in no mood to pay Intuit's price. I guess I'll give gnucash a try and see if it will import ten years of data without making a mess.

 

[darkewaffle]

Paypal doesn't support Quicken's newer file format so .qif was the only alternative to manual entry.

Paypal can export to CSV and tab delimited as well, I'm pretty sure you can make those work with a little modification.

 

[Pheran]

This is true. I only switched to Quicken when Money died. Money was better.

I still use MS Money, just without any online integration. In fact, you can download Money Sunset totally free.

 

[tcsenter]

It's been Intuit's policy at least since 2006, probably before.

 

[Ketchup]

yeah my version of 2009 won't do it anymore.

i never really cared since i check it every day or other day anyway.

This happened to us as well. My wife really likes using it, so we went ahead and got the latest version.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

That's the sort of thing that leads people to piracy. When the stolen version works better than the legal one there's very little incentive to buy.

 

[vshah]

i <3 mint. does everything I need it to.

 

[waggy]

That's the sort of thing that leads people to piracy. When the stolen version works better than the legal one there's very little incentive to buy.

exactly.

I buy the software i want to use. i buy the games i want to play.

But i do admit if the company is going to disable software i have purchased to get me to buy the new version? fuck that i will just pirate the shit. fuck them.

give me a good reason to upgrade at a good price. otherwise quicken 2009 does everything i need. hell 2003 did to

 

[kranky]

I'm a long-time Quicken user and no fan of Intuit but I can see how tough it is to continue to maintain a product like that. If there was no sunset policy, there would never be enough sales to justify keeping it around, and it would simply die. Heck if there was no sunset policy I would probably still be using an 8-year-old version. They are trying to broaden the user base by offering Quicken deals tied in with TurboTax.

The only feature that stops working is the ability to download and import transactions. People who don't mind entering them manually can use the same version indefinitely.

Mint is good for what it is but it does not do everything that Quicken does.

The cost of the upgrades is worth it to me for the time saved in manually entering transactions, so I continue to upgrade when I have to.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm a long-time Quicken user and no fan of Intuit but I can see how tough it is to continue to maintain a product like that. If there was no sunset policy, there would never be enough sales to justify keeping it around, and it would simply die. Heck if there was no sunset policy I would probably still be using an 8-year-old version. They are trying to broaden the user base by offering Quicken deals tied in with TurboTax.

Apply that to anything else, and does it still makes sense? I'm a fan of Maytag washers, but if they didn't arbitrarily reduce features, they would slowly die off. That's why I don't mind if you can't wash cotton after a couple years. I can still wash polyester, and if I really want to wash cotton, I can still do it in the bath tub...

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

What did the eskimos ever do to you?

 

[kranky]

Apply that to anything else, and does it still makes sense? I'm a fan of Maytag washers, but if they didn't arbitrarily reduce features, they would slowly die off. That's why I don't mind if you can't wash cotton after a couple years. I can still wash polyester, and if I really want to wash cotton, I can still do it in the bath tub...

I guess I don't see it as that drastic. To me the comparison would be that after a couple years, the washer still performs all the essential functions but loses one that added convenience.

Of course if downloading transactions is critical, you have to upgrade. For the users who don't have that many transactions, or don't care to categorize every single credit card purchase, downloading is probably not something they would care that much about.

 

[IronWing]

I guess I don't see it as that drastic. To me the comparison would be that after a couple years, the washer still performs all the essential functions but loses one that added convenience.

Of course if downloading transactions is critical, you have to upgrade. For the users who don't have that many transactions, or don't care to categorize every single credit card purchase, downloading is probably not something they would care that much about.

The issue here isn't Intuit choosing to stop offering a service, that would be reasonable. In this case Intuit intentionaly timebombed a function that required no effort on their part to maintain. This is more akin to if Microsoft were to choose to timebomb the SUM feature in Excel in order to pressure users to upgrade to newer versions. Having a fully operational SUM feature in old versions costs Microsoft nothing but forcing users to pay to upgrade would make them extra money with no advantage to the user other than getting the disabled feature to work again.

What Intuit is doing is basically a stealth subscription model.

 

[sixone]

Quicken has sucked donkey balls since 2005. Haven't bought it since.